Spirit and Nature: Why the Environment is a Religious Issue: An Interfaith Dialogue

This fine volume (as well as a 1991 PBS documentary by Bill Moyers) grew out of a convocation at Middlebury College that assessed the spiritual dimensions of the world's ongoing environmental crisis. Rockefeller ( John Dewey: Religious Faith and Democratic Humanism ) and Elder (co-editor of The Norton Book of Nature Writing ) assembled an excellent panel of theologians and environmentalists, representing Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, Native American and other traditions. Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of New York's Jewish Theological Seminary, reflects upon whether Judaism's legal regulation of humankind's relationship with nature might promote self-restraint and help us adapt to a world of diminished resources. Methodist theologian Sallie McFague discusses how theologians might help us reimagine ourselves by reconsidering the central images from metaphors of dominion to those of interrelatedness. The Dalai Lama suggests that we see environmentalism as a ``practical ethic,''117 simply ``taking care of our own house.'' These uniformly strong contributions offer a good start toward asking whether religion might, at once, marshal its resources and find a renewed sense of purpose in helping save the planet. (June)